Sources have praised the Watch’s next-generation force-sensing touchscreen interface, saying that “the screen feels like a giant button than you just want to press in the manner needed for Force Touch.” A source added that the feature “feels natural” on the small screen. Also, the Digital Crown input device is required to use the Apple Watch, as the Watch differs from the sixth-generation iPod nano in lacking pinch to zoom capabilities: it registers touches and movements up, down, left, and right.

Really good post discussing various details about how certain features of the Watch work by Gurman. Force Touch is one of my big question marks about the product, so I’m happy to see that ‘sources’ say it works well functionally. I still think it will take a while for users to grasp the concept of a tapping gesture that doesn’t directly relate to an onscreen UI element. I also foresee some people with particularly forceful taps1 to need some to readjust their handling.

The breadth and depth of the software features on offer with Watch OS really don’t feel like a 1.0 release. This feels like mature software — Apple is covering a lot of bases with the initial firmware.

1 Seriously, some people press the screen of their non-pressure sensitive iPhone really hard.